The Chinese will hire all the best artists in the world to create an upscale shoe market.

?? A lot of the cachet for upscale footwear in East Asia is location-of-origin based. So there's shoe lines that are marketed as made in Italy or made in England that probably aren't really made in Italy or England. Or at least, not in the sense of being a true Italian or English shoe, even if they're partly assembled in Italy/England. The European connexion is not going away anytime soon.

Because of sizing issues, I prefer getting my dress shoes in East Asia, over US/UK/etc. I need a super-wide shoe, but almost all the shoes you see at department stores, shoe shops, etc. are medium or narrow. Some shoe makers (Allen Edmonds is good on this) make an extra-wide, but I can't try them on, because I need to order them. Which I have done, but it is non-ideal. I don't know whether there's a genetic difference in foot shape or what, but in contrast, at least in Japan, almost all the shoes in the shoe shops are super-wide. EE, EEE, even EEEE. So I have a couple pairs of "Italian" Japanese shoes. And they're actually quite nice. Just probably not Italian.

The guy posts perfectly pedestrian pictures of pretty people, and the commenters always act like Jesus just showed up.

I think they're actually quite nice pictures of mostly-pretty people. The best ones, though, are the ones he shoots of old people who might have been pretty once. I kind of enjoy peeking at his blog once in a while.

Come back? When did it ever leave, once established, for women who work in business or professional settings in urban environments? I don't recall a "lapse" in the "style" since I first noticed it in Chicago in the late 80's. As and when necessary, the women I knew or observed carried the de rigueur dainty shoes for office wear in a large purse.

Made perfect sense to me, a male, for women to not hobble through snow, wind and rain, on concrete, in spike heels or tiny slippers.

Still does.

And they're better than the lace up high top black leather things my (circa 40's and 50's)grade school teachers wore. :-)